Project Goal

Raised by her mother, a missionary who travelled around the country
administering to the poor, Reese Fernandez-Ruiz was, from her earliest years,
exposed to poverty and suffering in others. It was during this time she
learned that the best way to improve children’s lives was to support
their mothers. Inspired to help find solutions to her country’s social
problems, she received a scholarship to study management at Ateneo de
Manila University. Her commitment to helping others improve their lives
led her to the mothers of Payatas, where she was able to harness her
sharp business and managerial skills in the pursuit of her passion.

Living off a LandfillFor
the more than 117,000 people who live in Payatas, an impoverished
neighbourhood of Manila, capital of the Philippines, life is precarious.
Their skyline and their lives are dominated by one of the country’s
biggest solid-waste dumps, once a landfill and now a mountain of garbage
towering up to seven storeys high. Yet, despite the risk to health and
safety and the intolerable living conditions, the dump provides many
with a livelihood as the people of Payatas, including children as young
as four, scavenge daily through newly-dumped rubbish in search of
recyclables and scrap metals they can sell.

In recent years,
many house-bound women at Payatas have started a cottage industry —
weaving discarded fabric and rags into foot rugs — in an effort to bring
in some income for their families. But, with the women able to create
only eight to 10 rugs per day, and profits on each rug as low as
US$0.02, largely because of the intervention of unscrupulous middlemen,
the weavers faced a constant battle for survival.

Community of WeaversIn
the belief that success owes more to opportunity than capacity,
Fernandez-Ruiz, 25, introduced into the lives of these women a creative,
innovative and sustainable means of social entrepreneurship. In 2007,
with a priest and social entrepreneur, Xavier Alpasa, and a group of
young professionals, she co-founded Rags2Riches, a company designed to
create links between this community of weavers and the market, as well
as with factories that can provide them with additional scrap materials.

Fernandez-Ruiz’s business acumen had a revolutionary impact. By
inviting Filipino fashion designers, including leading fashion designer
Rajo Laurel and handbag designer Amina Aranaz-Alunan, to participate in
the design process, she revolutionized the marketing approach of the
cottage industry, vastly expanding the potential market for these
products. After examining the weavers’ work, Laurel (the first designer
to support Rags2Riches) realized that the colourful rugs could easily be
transformed into handbags, wine-bottle holders, eyeglass cases and yoga
mat carriers. "Eco-ethical" FashionToday,
Rags2Riches offers a collection of stylish, handmade accessories that
are sold in upscale stores in the Philippines and, in the near future,
via the company’s website. Of the Rags2Riches revamped product line,
Fernandez-Ruiz says: “It’s beauty that has more meaning when you pry deeper
into what it is. There is humanity woven into the fabric. Products that
enrich someone’s fashionable lifestyle are also enriching the lives of
those who make them.”

With the new collection comes a higher
earning capacity for the weavers: handbag prices, for example, range
from US$6 to $60, while a limited edition bag can fetch up to $130, with
up to 40 per cent of the retail price being paid to the weavers. Thanks
to Rags2Riches, the weavers now earn 2,000 per cent more than they did
three years ago. During that time, the company has enabled 350 women to
transform their lives (with 54 of them founding a cooperative that owns a
share of the company); expanded its reach from one to 21 communities
across the Philippines; grown from a single volunteer staff member to 10
paid staff; recycled 800 tonnes of scrap cloth; and earned 4,000,000
Philippine Pesos (US$86,720).From Poverty to PrideEqually
as important, Rags2Riches has transformed an industry that was once a
national stigma into one that is now a source of pride, and has equipped
the women of Payatas with business and life skills, including educating
them on the need for health insurance and the importance of good
nutrition. “Self-esteem is another very important realization of our
programme, but it’s difficult to measure,” explains Fernandez-Ruiz. “For
example, one of the mothers does not say she’s from Payatas because
she’s ashamed of it. But when we had a launch in a five-star hotel in
Manila, she said she could not believe that something she had made was
being worn by a top Filipino model. They have become very proud of their
handicraft.”

Rags2Riches is not only helping to sustain a way
of life for the women of Payatas, but, by reusing scrap cloth and other
waste materials, it is also improving their environment. Fernandez-Ruiz is
further expanding the type of materials that are salvaged, with plans
currently under way to make handbags out of hardwood scraps and plant
fibre. A weaving style using a traditional handloom, which is at risk of
dying out, will be used to make the handbags and will involve the women
of Payatas, as well as two communities near the Philippines’ Sierra
Madre mountain range. Other eco-ethical products in the pipeline include
fashion goods made from scrap leather, thread, wood and metal, as well
as recycled glass.

Sustainable DesignWhat
makes Fernandez-Ruiz’s programme unique and sustainable is the method she
employs, which she explains is based on sustainable design principles.
She adds: “Rags2Riches is creating a platform that is scalable and that
will enable us to reach out to other communities engaged in handicraft
cottage industries.” This platform is the Ecolife Laboratory which will
be funded by her Rolex Award and will bring professionals and
community-based enterprises together to collaborate and create new
products that actively promote the goals of Rags2Riches: making products
that empower people and protect the planet, while also being a positive
influence on society.

By drawing on the power of style,
Fernandez-Ruiz is helping to make the world a better place. This young,
entrepreneurial and socially-minded woman has many more ideas to help
people in difficulty. Yet, no matter how grand her aspirations,
Fernandez-Ruiz always stays true to one simple mission: “I dream to empower a
lot of communities, to help their families and the environment. I don’t
want to just create livelihoods and income. I want to create
sustainable, eco-ethical products. It can be a win-win situation for
everybody.”Bart Boehlert